RE4 and RE5 weren't really scary. RE4 is when they made the big jump to more of an action shooter game rather than a survival horror game that the series was up to that point. I haven't played RE6 so I can't comment about that. RE4 was a great game, but unfortunately it's aged horribly due to its tank controls, so playing it now for me is incredibly awkward and frustrating to say the least. But I remember getting the game on a Friday and beating it over the weekend. Incredibly memorable gaming weekend for me.
RE7 brought the game back to its survival horror roots. Heck, it brought itself back to the original game. The series is called Biohazard in Japan, which is far more fitting, but they couldn't get the name trademarked over here. Due to the original game being set in a house, they called the game Resident Evil in the west. While that was fine for the first game, that ended up being the series name which wasn't fitting at all. RE7's full title is Resident Evil 7: Biohazard... in the US. In Japan, it's Biohazard 7: Resident Evil. After not doing so hot with RE6, Capcom decided to go to the game's roots fully, and they hit a home run with it. The game is short, but it's thrilling, creepy survival horror. It's a very different style of game to RE4/RE5. I wouldn't say it's better or worse. RE4 was incredibly influential with its over the shoulder 3rd person shooter gameplay. But, again, tank controls f***ing suck and are a relic of the past. RE7 is the best survival horror game in a while. At least Capcom succeeded both critically and financially with RE7.
